Students from around the Okanagan gathered in Kelowna Friday to see whose bot was best.

More than 40 students were at the 17th annual Western Canada RoboCup Junior at Okanagan College, April 11, to compete for glory and a chance to go on to the International RoboCup in Salvador Brazil this summer.

The two main events were soccer and search and rescue.

The soccer event is exactly what it sounds like, two pairs of robots trying to score goals.

There was also a search and rescue challenge where robots had to navigate a course designed to simulate some of the challenges and obstacles a robot would face during such a task in the real world.

Nadir Ould-Khessal is a professor in the college’s electronic engineering department and he has helped run the competition for the last 17 years. He said the contest has come a long way since it began.

“We have very, very advanced robotic systems now being used, especially for soccer and search and rescue mazes. These are purely autonomous robots that have been designed by the kids. So there is that difference. There’s been a huge improvement over the years,” Ould-Khessal said.

This was the second time aspiring engineer Roy Zhang, 17, participated in the RoboCup. His bot was registered in the soccer event today.

“The hardest part is actually the maintenance of the robot and making sure that the work that you’ve done and the things you’ve prepared actually work on the competition,” Zhang said.